'Marketing'
Stop talking about features, talk about benefits
6 JUL 2016 0
You're business is the most important thing in the world to you, and you're excited. You're excited because you and your team have worked really hard over the past six months, you've put in the long hours, the blood, sweat, and tears, and you have a new product that is by all objective measures fantastic. A concrete improvement over the competition, over your old model, over everything else on the market.
The problem is, nobody else cares.
You don't understand it. You listed all the features on your site, uploaded the impressive technical specs. You've sent our press releases to industry sites and magazines, knowing that your innovations should by all rights capture their attention. But, you're not hearing anything back. You big new product isn't moving the needle like it should, it's like you don't even exist.
The problem isn't with the product, it's how your selling it. Focusing on features (even when they're great) is one of the most common traps when it comes to writing ad copy. What you should be talking about is benefits.
The simple fact is features bounce off of people like ping-pong balls. We're all so savvy and jaded by years of marketing bombardments touting additional razor blades, 200x tetraflop processing, and increasingly slimmer 0-60mph times that we just tune them right out. Numbers and features are meaningless at best. More often than not, impressive features or statistics will be met with suspicion or annoyance instead of appreciation.
But what people do care about is how something can help them. We're not yet so cynical to dismiss someone when they state in plain and simple terms that they can help us with something. So turn your features on their head and explain how your product or service will improve your customers life. Talk about the benefits.
Your organizational software is faster and more accurate? Then talk about how the software will reduce the burden of paper work in the office so employees can focus on profit generating activities. Less time spent on paper work, more time spent making money. Have a more efficient manufacturing technique? Don't talk about rates, talk about all the money saved by not wasting material.
Put yourself in the customer's shoes and ask "what's in it for me?” Instead of meandering about on how clever or awesome your product is, just answer that simple question. Keep your ad copy laser-focused on results for the customer and you can't go wrong.
Get people just as excited for your business as you are by focusing on how your work can benefit them.